Friday, Jan 12, 2001
On January 11, 2001, a front-page story in Israel's largest daily
newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, quoted Israeli army officials who confirmed,
that Israel possesses DU ammunition, similar to the NATO ammunition that
was used in the former Yugoslavia. According to reporters Tsadok
Yechezkeli and Anat Tal-Shir, the DU ammunition was taken out of service
one year ago and is no longer used by the IDF. The remainder of the DU
ammunition is in storage in IDF warehouses, in questionable safety
conditions.
The confirmation came only three days after the IDF issued an official
announcement, in which it was stated, that "depleted uranium missiles were
never used by the IDF". Soldiers and officers who served in the Israeli
navy were reported as being "amazed" at the army's denial, and told the
reporters that they had handled DU ammunition for years.
The chairperson of the Israeli Green Party, Pe'er Weisner, whose party was
the first organization to warn against the dangers of Israel's DU
ammunition, said that IDF soldiers were exposed on a daily basis to
extreme danger due to handling DU materials. He called for establishing an
independent organization to supervise environmental safety in the IDF.
Weisner warned that IDF soldiers could soon be found to suffer from
cancer as the result of faulty safety procedures in the army. A soldier
who served on an Israeli missile ship said that when the ship was
overcrowded, soldiers slept in rooms in which the DU missiles were stored.
The Yediot report also stated that the first time that Israel used DU
missiles was in 1985, when an Israeli navy ship fired at a "large
terrorist boat" 160 kilometers from its shore.
The former Chief Medical Officer of the Israeli Navy, Prof. Yosef Ribak,
is quoted as saying: "The whole storm that evolved in Europe is a type of
public panic. People mistakenly think that these are atomic missiles...
The radioactive pollution is insignificant."
Yediot Aharonot's website: www.ynet.co.il
Rayna Moss
